


Injury

by Birdbf



Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: Broken nose, Comfort, Fights, Gen, Injury, Nosebleed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2015-11-26
Packaged: 2018-05-03 13:24:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5292671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Birdbf/pseuds/Birdbf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Little Nageki struggles after his first fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Injury

The blood in Nageki’s mouth tasted bitter and metallic, running hot into the edges of his mouth. He forgot how he got here, but wobbling from the courtyard behind the orphanage to the cool indoors was proving difficult. His legs were struggling beneath him as he gripped at the gates, using it as support for his fragile frame.

When he finally reached the door, he could hardly see. Tears welled in his eyes, pooling with the brown-red blood dripping down his chin and onto the wooly knit of his tawny cardigan. Every time he would glimpse down, something purple and blurred would appear, meeting between his eyes.

His face was hot, eyes tight and vision blurred. His entire face ached, in fact. It was hard to remember what happened, but when he got inside and settled on the floor, he thought it through. A hazy world surrounded him as his shaking knees knocked each other.

He got in a fight with someone. He couldn’t remember why, exactly--someone was upset over Hitori, maybe? He could faintly recall being called a baby. He didn’t start it, but somewhere between being insulted, his vision went black and he hit the ground, almost instantaneously.

Resting the back of his head against the door frame as it slid shut with a click, Nageki reached up to touch where his face ached. Curious hands touched the bridge of his nose, contorted and twisted painfully into something that seemed.. all wrong. There was a moment of panic here, before his hands dropped defeatedly to his sides. He couldn’t get up because he would just fall over. He couldn’t talk because it hurt too much, and he would just be gargling his own blood. 

He had nosebleeds before. But rocking his head back didn’t stop this, and instead made him gag. Raising his sweater sleeve to rest on his face, he would occasionally raise it to eye-level, shuddering at the amount of blood staining under his fingernails and the sewn edge that stuck to his skin. It had to stop eventually, right..?

And then he heard it. A high-pitched, startled yelp he had grown accustomed to in situations much less serious than this. A blur of grey, red and brown in front of his face, he couldn’t really understand what Hitori was saying. It was probably inquiring what happened, but as the quail pulled Nageki’s hand away, there was another noise that made his aching head throb. 

His vision went black again, and before he knew it, he was rested against another wall, this time. This one pulled at his hair, but he couldn’t lift his head away yet. He gasped through his mouth for air, as his nose seemed to be blocked off. His upper lip still felt wet and sticky, but his chin felt crusted with what was presumably blood.

The quail noticed quickly, getting down on his knee to look Nageki over.

“What happened, Nageki?” Hitori’s voice seemed strained, like he needed a glass of water.

“I got in a fight.” The answer was followed by a gag, blood on Nageki’s cracked lips.

A fight? Hitori seemed a combination of confused and upset. Nageki had never gotten in a fight before, and didn’t seem to be one to initiate them--how could he have gotten involved? He was such a good big brother to the rest of the kids in the house!

“Who did you fight with?”  
Nageki didn’t have an answer yet. His thoughts were inaccessible, memories all jumbled around.. He still couldn’t remember what happened. 

“He called me a baby,” Nageki finally managed to answer, trying to sit up before he was pressed back into his seat by the fretting Hitori. 

“That’s no reason to get into a fight! Why didn’t you just walk away?”  
“I was trying.. I didn’t fight back.”  
A sigh of relief left Hitori. Nageki was a good kid.. Of course he didn’t fight back. 

The Quail touched Nageki’s face, looking his nose over. It was definitely going to need to be pushed back into place. Leaning away to whistle, he summoned a tall bird, blurry but still composed of mostly tans and blondes. Nageki was familiar with him, but didn’t greet him. He seemed to have something eggshell white in his hands--maybe a tackle box or first-aid kit. 

Kazuaki settled down next to the other two, sitting on the spinning chair on the tile floor, rolling it towards Nageki. He opened the kit, getting out q-tips first. Removing the packing gauze from Nageki’s nose, now, it looked like a big ball of blood, which made the mourning dove’s heart flutter and pound in his ribcage.

Hitori held Nageki’s head, brushing his hair and bangs as the trembling mock-doctor used the q-tips to swab the remaining blood from his nose. It seemed to stop bleeding.. But, Hitori was feeling guilty. Lacking the funds to get Nageki’s nose properly set at the hospital, nor the funds to actually get there, meant he couldn’t get Nageki the proper care he needed. 

Calloused hands ran over Nageki’s face, holding him still as Kazuaki braced his thumbs against the bridge of the tiny dove’s nose. With a careful gesture, he squeezed the sides to carefully set it. Nageki yelped, much to Hitori’s dismay.

It took a few tries for Nageki’s nose to be set, but Hitori was suffering through every moment of it. Nageki grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly, little cries leaving the dove.

When the suffering was finally over, Nageki collapsed back against the wall and Hitori’s arms, breathing deeply. Everything tasted metallic and hot, tissue blocking off his exhales through his nose. Nageki embraced Hitori reluctantly, Kazuaki struggling across the room to wash his hands, scrubbing every surface tainted by Nageki’s injury. 

Blood caked on fingernails and tips were far too familiar to the teenage quail, and his eyes watered as Nageki was comforted. The mourning dove still couldn’t remember who punched him. Sitting against the chair, Nageki wiped his eyes again, squawking as he brushed his nose.

“Be careful!” Hitori fussed, taking Nageki’s hands to lower down to his lap. Kazuaki offered a soft wipe, padding under his eyes around the hot purple bruises that still stung. 

“Um.. Hitori, don’t you think we should..” Kazuaki inquired before letting his words fade into the background noise. Hitori only shook his head, getting up to retrieve an ice pack set off to the sidelines, setting it on Nageki’s cheek. Nageki winced, the cold stinging his skin.

“We can’t afford it.” Nageki answered, finally able to speak. He brought his hands up to brush his long green hair away, pulling it back and away. “Kanta needed to get his crutches fixed. It’s okay…”

With a surprised squawk from the hallway, a loud sob was heard. Hoppe raised her arms, dropping her security blanket to the floor. Momo wasn’t lying!! She did see Nageki get hurt!!

“Noooo!” Hoppe whimpered, barrelling at Nageki full-speed. She was only intersected by Hitori’s arm, clotheslining her in the chest. The tiny penguin raised her hands over Hitori’s arm, grabbing wildly for Nageki. 

“He’s hurt, be careful.” His scolding was gentle, but the little bird was in tears.  
“Momo said big bro Nageki was hurt! How’d he get hurt?”  
“Someone hit me,” Nageki huffed, reaching out an arm to lower Hitori’s. He pat Hoppe’s head, sighing deeply as he fixed her hood, straightening it atop her head. 

“Did Momo see what happened?” Hitori asked, motioning for Nageki to move his hand. Hoppe instead leaned into being pet, taking his wrist in both hands as she nestled in, undisturbed by the blood sticking to her hair.

“Noooo… She just saw him getting carried to the infirmary… Is he okay?” A gasp followed. She moved out from under Nageki’s hand, tears welling in her eyes again as she griped his wrist tightly. His pulse pumped under her fingertips, startling her a bit.  
“Is big brother Nageki dying? He can’t go to heaven yet! Kanta made the river all dirty!”

“He’s not dying!” Hitori snapped, voice strained as he looked over Nageki. He did look bad, and he never was all that healthy. The notion that he may die made his heart pound, though he knew that Nageki wouldn’t die from getting a broken nose. 

“So he’s going to live?”

“Yes,” Nageki responded, eyes shut as he rested his head against the wall again. “Momo, my head really hurts. Can you go tell the others not to worry?”

The dutiful little bird replied with a salute, something that Kanta did to reaffirm that he understood. “Yes! I’ll go tell Momo first… She was really worried. I hope we can play again soon!” Nodding at the crew, all crowded around the tired Nageki, she ran out of the door. She nearly stumbled over her own socks, picking up her blanket on the way out. 

“Your black eyes should take about a week..” Hitori mumbled, taking Kazuaki’s hand to ground himself. With a deep breath, he stood. He took Nageki’s hand to help him to his feet, an arm hooked around his waist. The quail was not much taller than Nageki when standing, and guided the lightweight dove carefully to his room. 

“Let’s get you to bed, Nageki. Hopefully you can rest.” 

Nageki nodded as he stumbled along, the world still hard to keep upright. When he found his bed, he laid on his side, blankets tucked over and around him with Kanta’s extra pillow stacked under his head. Sleep came as soon as he hit the sheets.

The poor little dove.


End file.
